Posts Tagged ‘Fly Fishing Dartmoor’

I’ve just finished a two day novice course with Geoff from Suffolk. Geoff had booked up some while ago, and had been eagerly looking forward to visiting the fly fishing school to start his new hobby.

We always try to exceed our client’s expectations here at the school so we had a good chat to start about what Geoff wanted to achieve and how we could set out about delivering.

Although Geoff had read and watched a lot of fishing related stuff he needed help in clarifying all the information in his mind. It can become really confusing when you have different commentators telling you the same thing but using differing descriptions and explanations.

Geoff is on the money!

Over the following days we had a string of firsts and grins, with Geoff making his first cast with his new rod, landing his first Taw wild Brown Trout caught on his own dry fly. It really doesn’t get any better then that and for those of us who can remember landing our first fish, it is just the best feeling knowing that you put the mayfly on the money and the fish gladly rewards you.

Hope to see you again some day Geoff, still grinning I hope and enjoying all the wonderful things the River Taw has to offer.

What do guides do when they’re not teaching? Go fishing of course! Dave and I decided to try out a small tributary of the Dart, high on Dartmoor. We picked the only wet and windy day we’d had for weeks. Typical, but I can’t moan as I was up there a few days earlier in shirtsleeves hoping we would have some rain as the rivers are desperately low.
Despite the conditions we stuck with the dry flies as this is our favourite technique. We worked upstream, fishing alternate pools. The fishing was hard compared to previous outings earlier in the week. But it’s not all about the fishing and we were lucky enough to see two cuckoos at close quarters. We did manage to catch a few fish each, pressing on up the river for about a mile. Running out of water and with the conditions worsening we decided to head lower down the Dart and off the open moor where we would be sheltered from the worst of the weather.
Wandering across the moor to our next location we heard a couple of bird calls neither of us recognised. On further investigation we came across a group of naked ladies (or should it be damsels?) singing and chanting at the water’s edge – how bizarre, and no we hadn’t been drinking! Not your average day on Dartmoor but like true pro’s we kept to the task and went on to catch a few more fish and even winkled a nice brownie of about 10″ out from the rocks.

I came close to the perfect day today, you know those days when everything you try works out, and you feel that the gods are on your side.

I had a Kennick boat day booked guiding with Craig who had a birthday treat arranged for him.

I got to Kennick at 8.15 to set up the boat and get the rods ready for action. Craig was on time and we set about talking tactics as we threaded up the last of the rods.

The sun was quite bright even at 9 am, but we had a light southerly and conditions were looking okay. I got Craig started on the slow sinking line with my “special” Damsel pattern and within 10 minutes we were in to a

lively rainbow which cartwheeled and flung itself around before coming to the net.

Craig and his first trout on a dry fly!

The fishing then went a little quiet so it was time to change. I opted for a buzzer rig which would allow us to fish a lot deeper. Second cast and Craig was in again and this time the fish kept deep and fought really hard. On spooning it had been gorging on caseless caddis in deep water so the buzzer was the perfect fly to get down.

We were then on a mission, one on a nymph, one on a buzzer. What next? Lets try a dry. Craig’s face lit up “love to, I’ve never hooked a fish on a dry”. We then set up to drift and worked all the likely spots. It was not long before Craig rose a brownie after a good cast under the trees that came unstuck.

We moved up the lake to find more breeze and although the wind could not make up its mind, the fishing improved during the day with Craig landing his first fish on a small dry fly, then followed by 3 more and a few others missed.

It was a great day to be out fly fishing Kennick at its best; the tranquility and the fishing made it a very special day!

We were thrilled to receive a message from Craig almost as soon as he got home:

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the guided fishing day, it has to be the best days fly
fishing I have ever had.

I parked up at Fingle Bridge and wandered down for a quick look at the river to see if there was any activity. There were no rising fish and very few flies to be seen – hardly surprising given the drizzle. Still I decided to give it a go and opted for my 8’ 6” 4# rod. I was trying a new fly which I’d tied the previous evening, an Adams with an Aerodry wing post. The Aerodry material is a very buoyant high viz yarn, ideal for the dark conditions and very easy to see on the water.

I lightly greased the post up, being careful not to get any on the body so that the fly sat with the wing out of the water and the body just below the surface. A few casts later I was into my first fish, not on the Adams but on the nymph below. I saw the bite instantly, using the high viz dry fly as a bite indicator.

I fished on for about an hour and a half, catching 12 fish altogether – 7 to the nymph and 5 to the dry, not bad for an evenings fishing. I was very happy with the Adams fly as I didn’t have to regrease at all, just a couple of quick casts and it was dry. I’d thoroughly recommend using this material which is available from the Crediton Fly Fishing shop.

We are pleased to report that Kennick is fishing really well. This warm weather is just what we needed to get the fish up in the water and topping.

Floating line and Damsel patterns have been the order of the day, with a couple even hitting it on the drop. The odd brownie have also been showing.

The best areas are, without doubt, Clampitts & Arnolds Point. This is quite similar to last year during the same period, except the fishing dropped away last year with cold easterlys sending the fish deep and grumpy. No such problem this year and although it was a blusterly northerly today, I think that helped break up the bright sun and kept the fish brave when coming to the fly.

Well what a great day we had over at our sister fly fishing school. Pete had his annual workshop with the Crediton Fly Fishing Club, a cheery bunch of chaps who all successfully navigated the changing of the clocks to role up at the Fox and Hounds hotel on time!

It is always interesting to hear the opinions of fellow brothers of the angle and to show them new fishing techniques and fly pattern variations, so thanks to all who contributed. As always I enjoyed doing my entomology bit and Lee did a great demo on the roll cast and its uses on the river.

And for those of you who were wondering what the spider thing is all about – it’s Pete’s new nickname for me! I was demonstrating how to fish spiders down and across for the guys to have a look at and the fish were very keen to get involved as well.

Well, what a lovely way to start the season at Kennick yesterday. We had the long awaited grand opening ceremony of the disabled walkway.

The new access to the wheelie boat will certainly be of huge benefit to those wheelchair anglers and anglers who have difficulty with walking.

I know from previous experience how hard it is to push a wheelchair angler on rough terrain so now things should be a whole lot easier!

So many thanks to all those involved in making it happen and the cream tea was a proper job as we say down here in Devon.

I bumped into Kennick Regular, Jan who had 4 nice trout which was a good effort on the floater from boat bank, it seems, as expected, that the fish were down a little so a longer leader or a sinking line is a must if you want to winkle out one or two.